Collection Highlight: Madiha Umar, Precursor of Early Modern Calligraphy

Madiha Umar (1908 – 2005), a prominent Arab modernist artist, was instrumental in forming the Hurufiyya movement in mid twentieth-century Iraq. Born in Aleppo, Syria, and raised in Iraq, where she became a naturalised citizen, Madiha immersed herself in the region’s post-Ottoman state, replete with intricate calligraphy on Islamic buildings and burgeoning cultural growth from Iraq’s ancient empires to modernity.

Her education continued in Beirut and Istanbul before she became one of the first women sent by the Iraqi government on a scholarship to England, where she pursued formal art education at Maria Grey Training College, the first teacher training college for women in the country. Upon returning to Baghdad in 1933, Madiha was appointed head of the Department of Arts at the Teachers Training College for Women during a time when Iraq was investing heavily in art education.

The 1940s was the artist’s decade of transition. After moving to Washington, D.C., in 1942, Madiha pursued her art education at George Washington University, where she discovered the works of the Iraqi-American scholar of Islam, papyrology and paleography Nabia Abbott, whose research focused on the early development of Arabic calligraphy. This provided the foundational principle for Madiha’s aesthetical approach to the Arabic script, which involved the conversion of letters from their traditional contexts to abstract forms while preserving their transcendental essence. For the artist, the letter can expand beyond its graphic qualities, existing as a free form, independently withholding the connection to words.

During her first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C., in 1949, Madiha showcased her early experimental work, which featured the Arabic script as the primary and graphical element of her abstract art. Accompanying the exhibition, she composed a declaration titled Arabic Calligraphy: An Element of Inspiration in Abstract Art, concluding that each letter has the potential to generate an abstract design with its distinct personality and dynamism.

Madiha’s visual language led to the emergence of the mid twentieth-century Hurufiyya movement, in which, along with other notable artists such as Jamil Hamoudi, she challenged the Western traditional perception of modern Arab art by emphasising cultural specificity that reflected the region’s identity.

Madiha’s later technique, in which she infused semiotics in her plasticised letters, was influenced by her role in the One Dimension Group formed by Iraqi artist Shakir Hassan Al Said in 1971. A decade later, in the 1981 exhibition in Baghdad, Madiha became the first artist to display modern calligraphy in the Arab world. An example of her involvement in the One Dimension Group is illustrated in Untitled (The Letter Ein), produced in 1986, and in which the artist focused on “ein” ( ع), a letter that conveys the meaning of the eye that allows comprehension through the visual experience. The composition follows the letter’s cursive shape in an interwoven path woven through a repetitive organic form of expressive imagery.

Due to political conflicts and looting, Madiha’s work is no longer available in many public collections, making Mathaf’s examples even more important. Her body of work showcases her innovative approach to the visual elements of the Arabic language and its capacity to convey cultural and national identities. Her contributions to Iraq’s modern art movement are notable globally, and her work continues to be exhibited worldwide. Madiha’s work was re-contextualised in the 2022 permanent collection rotation at Mathaf, representing the emergence of calligraphy and its impact on later experimentations with the meaning and malleable qualities of Arabic script.

Rim Albahrani is a Research Assistant at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

References

Al-Ansari, Banan Ahmed. Interrelated histories, practices, and forms of communication: Using Arabic calligraphy to learn Arabic typography. University of North Texas, 2015

Ali, Wijdan. A survey of modern painting in the Islamic world and the development of the contemporary calligraphic school. Phd thesis. University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (United Kingdom), 1993

Lenssen, Anneka, Sarah A. Rogers, and Nada M. Shabout, eds. Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2018

Madiha Umar Estate.https://www.madihaumar.com/biography

Oweis, Fayeq. Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists. Greenwood Press, 2008

Shabout, Nada M. Modern Arab art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007

Takesh, Suheyla, Lynn Gumpert, Iftikhar Dadi, Hannah Feldman, Salah M. Hassan, Anneka Lenssen, Salwa Mikdadi, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Nada Shabout, and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie. Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s. Hirmer Publishers, 2020.

Plan Your Visit

Admission to Mathaf is free and includes entrance to temporary special exhibitions. Reserve free tickets in advance to select your preferred time slot.